Letters

I am retired now, therefore my grandsons might be subjected to the PARCC testing or its equivalent.
I still wonder though, if I had been “assessed,” I might never have gone to New Mexico State University, to spend six and a half years earning a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s degree seven years later and becoming a registered professional engineer in New Mexico and Washington state.
I was scholastically outclassed much of the time.
Years later, after earning my credentials, I decided that tenacity was more important than brilliance.

When I go to Smith’s, I take my reusable bags. My favorites are the two that I received free from Smith’s. They have box bottoms and wooden handles.
They can’t be machine washed so I separate my groceries and request plastic grocery bags for the things that might leak.
I have five wastebaskets and a garbage bin under the sink. I use plastic bags to line all of them. The only ones that get thrown away are the ones that line the garbage bin.
When I was a volunteer at the library book store and the Jemez House Thrift Store, we used the plastic bags that people brought their books and things to be recycled in to pack things that other people were buying.
On the rare occasions when it rains in Los Alamos, both libraries have plastic bags on-hand to place books in so they won’t get wet.
The important thing about plastic bags is that they have handles. I usually walk to Smith’s. I use my backpack and plastic bags to carry my things home in. If I have more plastic bags than I need at home, I take a used plastic bag with me.
Our Los Alamos Monitor comes in a plastic bag five days a week. I recycle them or use them for dog waste if our grand puppy is visiting.

The directional sign to Guaje Pines Cemetery is so low that it is hard for first visitors to see. In the summer, it is shaded, too.
Could the sign be lifted for better view?
Also, a little green and white sign on the other side of Diamond Drive would be helpful.

Sue Y. Conner
Los Alamos

Casino not a place for teens

Showering after a night at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino helps wash away some of the smell of the smoking.
Gambling is illegal for our high school students. Drinking alcohol is also illegal for them.
Drinking alcohol helps them make bad decisions.
Memories from the prom night.

Right-to-Work is an attack on the middle class. It is unfair, unnecessary and hides the bill’s true goals.
Our legislators need to be focused on issues that strengthen the communities of their constituents by closing tax loopholes that only benefit the wealthy, raising salaries for public school teachers that help raise our youth and cutting taxes for small-business owners.
Our focus should be on strengthening New Mexico’s economy from the core and making sure all of our children get the education they need and deserve to lead us into the future.
Facts show that Right-to-Work laws such as House Bill 75 law will not stimulate growth and increase jobs in New Mexico. In fact, such laws lower wages and negatively effects workers’ safety and security in northern New Mexico at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As a member of The International Guards Union of America local 69, I, along with our membership, do not support the passing of HB 75. It is clear to see the long-term agenda and effects will be negative for all workers.
Supporters of HB 75 have promised that the law would create jobs, yet not a single company has come forward to make a statement that is a factor in selecting New Mexico for a site. Why didn’t we hear any of this during the election?

Last week at the Capitol building in Santa Fe, something really exciting happened. The Senate Democrats unveiled an economic development plan for New Mexico that they call “Ready-to-Work.”
The Ready-to-Work plan would capitalize on the strengths of New Mexico and New Mexicans and create more than 73,000 jobs.
Thousands of workers in our state have all the skills and the drive that good employers want today. They are Ready-to-Work, but the jobs are not available.
That’s why our caucus is rolling out an economic development plan that develops strong measures to get help to working people in our state by attracting new employers and creating more home-grown jobs now.
Our Ready-to-Work plan is a package of bills being proposed by senators from around the state. It includes bills to spur job creation, and also bills that create opportunities for economic development in our rural communities. It focuses infrastructure investments that support jobs and bring economic development to the state.
Ready-to-Work includes bills that help our lowest-income residents to fully participate in the growth and opportunities our great state offers and rewards them for their hard work.

I am writing to correct any misperceptions that may have been created by the Los Alamos Monitor’s coverage of my comments to the County Council regarding the Open Space Management Plan made at Feb. 6 meeting.
As reported, I am a member of the County Planning and Zoning Commission. The Los Alamos Monitor’s story stated I opposed the Open Space Management Plan. That is not correct. At the beginning my verbal comments, I voiced my support for the Open Space Management Plan, that it was necessary and long overdue.
My comments were critical of two portions of the plan:
• The provision proposing, in effect, a Vista/Viewpoint zoning overlay district, without any guidance on how to enact it.
• The inclusion in the proposed open space map of virtually all of the vacant land owned by the county (not all the vacant land in the county), particularly a large parcel in Pueblo Canyon adjacent to the sewer plant, recently acquired from the federal government and previously proposed for economic development by the Open Space Advisory Group.

The University of New Mexico-Los Alamos great room was the place to be on Sunday. For eight hours, 47 performers entertained a generous audience that contributed $1,264 to the UNM-LA Scholarship fund, the most ever in the fifth Annual Music Marathon. This was also the first one to which local businesses contributed door prizes.
We would like the community’s help in thanking Bob’s Bodacious BBQ, Casa Mesita (which supports a dozen local charities), Chili Works, Del Norte Credit Union, Khalsa Acupuncture, Northroad Inn, Pam Reass, Professional Skin Care Choices, RadioShack (now selling musical instruments), and Village Arts for their door prizes, valued at more than $500. Shop locally, folks!
Thanks performers, without whom all of this is impossible: Cathy Turner, Ruth Williamson, Sonja Ebey, Troy Makela, William Dale, Karin Ebey, Katie Brown, Sonja Ebey, Troy Makela, Joseph Dale, Kathleen Brodnax. Other piano soloists were The Little Piano Group playing Edvard Grieg: Rheta Moazzami, Robin Gurule, Claudia Hilko, Judy Hutson, Bonnie Kiang, Phyllis Slattery, Susan Mendel, Joyce Guzik and Juanita Madland.
Donna and John O’Donnel delighted the audience with their baroque recorders.

I don’t shop on the Internet.
I wanted a pair of New Balance shoes. I found what I wanted on the Internet. I chose the color and size and printed it.
I took it to CB Fox and ordered them. I picked them up today. The price was the same as the Internet but there was no shipping.
If they didn’t fit I would not have had to pay for them — they would have been put in stock and sold at the store. Is there a place on the Internet that does free gift wrapping?
Our son Shaun worked at Clement & Benner (that’s what CB stands for) all through high school and college. He was employee of the year in 1986.
When Shaun went to college, Mary Pierce from the office would send him cookies.
Shaun has a degree in petroleum engineering, but has been in sales all his working life. I used to tell Tom Hall he taught him everything he knows about selling.
We moved here in 1967 and the only stores that were here then that are still here are CB Fox and Metzger’s, which are both family owned businesses.
I would like to see them here at least until my maker calls me home.
Camille Morrison
Los Alamos

My reason for writing this is two-fold. First and foremost there are no words that could express fully the thanks and praise for the care, compassion and love shown from the staff at Aspen Ridge Assisted Living Facility to my mother in law, Virginia Marr, who recently passed away.
We could never have made it through this experience without their help and expertise. How lucky this community is to have such a wonderful facility to help with our aging community members. Thanks also to Ambercare Hospice for
their help during Virginia’s last days.
A very special thanks to the United Church, Pastor David Elton and his staff who helped us through this very emotional and sad time. They were instrumental in making Virginia’s service so very special to us all. They really went above and beyond to make her day the best it could have been and I know Virginia would have been honored and pleased to hear and see all her family and friends there to help celebrate her life.
Our thanks to the staff at Medical Associates of Northern New Mexico, the Los Alamos Medical Center Emergency Room and the Los Alamos County Fire and Rescue who have assisted us on many occasions.

Recently, before the snow arrived in Los Alamos, we were visited by our grandchildren. On the sunny dry day we sent them to the Barranca Soccer Field to play a few goals.
They returned back quite disappointed and our 8-year-old Simon sat down to write this note so somebody who is in charge of the soccer fields would read it.